THE DRILL SERGEANT: Great Western Exploration (ASX: GTE) is preparing to commence drilling at the company’s Fairbairn copper project in Western Australia.

Great Western Exploration has signed up drilling contractor DDH1 for the gig, which is anticipated to commence in late March 2024.

The company explained the upcoming drilling will test three DeGrussa-style targets, which makes some sense considering the project’s location being around 120km from Sandfire Resources’ (ASX: SFR) DeGrussa copper-gold project.

The targets were identified by both a fixed-loop electromagnetic (FLEM) ground survey and a heliborne EM survey conducted last year.

Geophysics and sampling undertaken by Great Western have been interpreted to indicate the targets hold potential to host volcanic hosted sulphide mineralisation.

“These targets have been identified and refined using cutting-edge geophysics and assessed by leading people in this field,” Great Western Exploration managing director Shane Pike said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“Geological mapping completed by our team found the targets are located in a geological setting expected for a DeGrussa style copper-gold deposit and share many other key geological characteristics.

“The targets are modelled as sitting between 80m and 190m below surface and their highly compelling prospectivity is supported by anomalous surface sampling results with assays grading up to 0.19 per cent copper and 0.15 grams per tonne gold, indicative of a fertile mineral system.”

Once it has completed drilling at the Fairbairn copper project, Great Western indicated it plans to commence drilling at the company’s Oval and Oval South targets, the geophysical signatures of which it has interpreted as sharing similarities with Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) Winu intrusive related copper-gold deposit.

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE